The American Desert

[Kristl Walek]

There is a seasonal phenomenon in the southwestern USA that some international plant people may not be aware of--the late winter human migration to the American deserts to see the spring wildflower bloom.

Folks keep their timetables flexible from late January-April and when the time is right (rain being the determining factor), they are off to the deserts of Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and Utah.

The desert-bloom web sites issue their email reports on a daily basis, while one is on "standby" deciding where is best to go this year.  

http://www.desertusa.com/wildflo/wildupdates.html

For someone with my freedom-loving personality, the spontaneity of that yearly migration pushes all the right buttons.

However, coming from the far north, with a busy seed business to run during the very time I needed to be ready to jump on a plane once it started raining in the desert, required more stealth and scheduling.

So, my last trip there in 2006 had to be thoroughly planned in advance. Here is a report of that sojourn, in case it might inspire someone else to undertake this soul-altering experience.


edit by maggi: remember, by clicking on the thumbnail pictures, they will enlarge  8)

[Kristl Walek]

I decided on California because of personal and practical considerations. My closest friend, who I had not seen in 30 years, lives in northern California and was keen to do the trip with me. I also liked the fact that the eco-systems in that state varied dramatically from lush mountains to desert, ocean to rich vineyard country. The trip was for a too-short two weeks. I flew into San Francisco and Kathleen and I made the short trip north to her home in Sebastopol (80 km from the airport).

This is vineyard country---and for the first week, we spent time exploring the area, doing wine tasting and indulging in many culinary delights. It was warm enough to eat outdoors in the many restaurants we sampled.

While most vineyards were simple and charming---some had a rather (ridiculous) opulent public style.

[Kristl Walek]

and because this before the time I lived near the ocean myself here in Nova Scotia, I spent many hours walking the beaches near Sebastopol and looking at the (few) plants in bloom along the shore.

[Kristl Walek]

I was really itching to hit the highway and get into the wild after a week in civilization---so off we headed early one morning--with Lake Tahoe being our first nights' destination.

To get there involved a wonderful drive through the Sierra Nevada. En route we made a stop at the famous Mono Lake (a desert lake with no outlet to the ocean, dissolved salts therefore making the lake very alkaline and salty). The lake is fascinating for all sorts of other reasons:
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mono_Lake

but I wanted to see the famous tufa towers that rise out of it.

[Kristl Walek]

Lake Tahoe is, of course a major tourist attraction and the largest alpine lake in North America and at 500m deep, the second deepest lake in the USA.

We spent our first night here, in a surprisingly luxurious Best Western tucked into large conifers, right on the lake, at ridicuously affordable rates (I recall it being under $50.00/night) --- and checking now it is not much more expensive, all these years later.

A general comment on hotels: if you are visiting Death Valley National Park---where we were heading next (which lies predominantly in California but right on the Nevada border), it is a short drive into Nevada after a day exploring the desert, and accomodation prices in Beatty (a few minutes right across the border) are rock bottom.

At the local casino in Beatty (and what isn't in this part of the world---even gas stations have slot machines), room rates are often $29.00/night (incentive for gamblers, not for en-route nature fiends, but I didn't argue).

[Kristl Walek]

From Tahoe we headed south the next morning to Death Valley National Park, which I had never seen before. 

Summer temperatures here can run above 120F, but it was perfect at this time of the year. In fact: the USA's highest temperature ever recorded was 134° farenheit on July 10, 1913 and this was in Death Valley. It is also the official highest temperature in the Western Hemisphere.

Large areas of the park are salt flats (sodium chloride--table salt), where of course nothing grows.
And the remainder of the valley floor and lower slopes had sparse vegetative cover.

In fact, I would say that Death Valley was more of geological than botanic interest.

[Kristl Walek]

Most of the plants I saw while we explored this area over a 2 day period were mostly not within the park proper, but in the adjacent areas.

Artemesia sp.
Castilleja angustifolia
Abronia villosa
Monoptilon bellioides (?) with Astragalus (?)
Sphaeralcea ambigua
Prosopsis glandulosa

[Kristl Walek]

On day 3 we headed to the nearby Mojave National Preserve, which was significantly more interesting botanically. Three of the four major North American deserts are, in fact found within the Preserve: the Mojave, Great Basin and Sonoran.  

The park is huge (1.6 million acres).

Although we were told at the visitors station that little to no rain had fallen here in the past few years--the area had much more obvious plant life that what we had experienced at Death Valley.

It is of course known for Yucca brevifolia (Joshua Tree); a fantastic plant, which was everywhere. We had hoped to venture far enough into the park to see some of the Joshua Tree Forests, but unfortunately we ended up having a problem with the car---and the wait in the desert for 4 hours for a tow truck to arrive from Reno, Nevada forced us to change plans slightly.

[Kristl Walek]

While waiting to be rescued (I must admit I was happy that one of us had a cell phone---and it wasn't me), we wandered around looking at plants. In that entire full day, we never saw another soul in the park.

Kathleen is standing among clumps of Abronia villosa, which we had seen earlier. Yucca baccata was common, as was Y. schidigera, which I neglected to photograph. We also saw all the Opuntia species we had seen earlier, but here there were many more. I had last seen Oenothera caespitosa in Alberta, although this is apparently var. marginata. Juniperus osteosperma (Utah Juniper) was also frequently seen, with tons of ripe fruits bringing colour to the landscape.

But the highlight of our wandering was running into large clumps of Echinocereus triglochidiatus in bloom. Kathleen posed with one clump to give a perspective of size.

[Maggi Young]

But the highlight of our wandering was running into large clumps of Echinocereus triglochidiatus in bloom. Kathleen posed with one clump to give a perspective of size.

Whoa! I would never have guessed the scale without the assistance of Kathleen.... those are meaty plants. 

[Kristl Walek]

We spent most of the remainder of this day driving back to Reno, squeezed inside the front of the tow truck, finding a garage and arranging to get the vehicle fixed (which took most of the next day as well). We amused ourselves as best we could (unfortunately neither of us had a single gambling bone in our bodies).

Having however lost an entire botanizing day, we had to cut out trip short and head back towards Sebastopol, but decided to make a short stop in Yosemite National Park. Unfortunately the roads leading to some of the high Sierra areas was closed due to snow, so we stayed in the lower areas, which were quite spectacular nevertheless, and a dramatic change from the past few days in the desert.

Some of the south facing mountain slopes were brightly coloured with drifts of California poppies and Lupins flowered along the lower areas. This was my first time seeing both Cercis occidentalis and Arctostaphyllos patula in bloom.

[Kristl Walek]

We spent the night outside Yosemite with mutual friends and our final day was spent in San Francisco visiting nurseries, indulging in gastronomical delights and a quick jaunt to Berkeley  (for a trip down memory lane for me) before we found ourselves back home. 2 days later I was back home in cold, Ontario.

Later that summer I saw a few of the species I had seen on my trip blooming in my garden (Echinocereus trig., Opuntia basilaris).

I do apologize for the quality of the pictures---this was the days of the first generation digital cameras, and I had a low-end model on this trip. But I hope I was able to give you the flavour of a trip I still dream of, and would repeat again, at the drop of a pin.

I still think that the most important life lesson my mother ever taught me was to never let an opportunity pass me by.  It is easy to find every excuse in the book as to why we can't do something--rather than do whatever it takes to make the opportunity happen. I think most of my trips to wonderful places have happened because I kept my mother's wisdom close. If not, I would not ever have travelled anywhere.

[Kristl Walek]

In looking at my post this morning I realized that I forgot an entire section on cacti in Death Valley.
Because I can't insert them in the proper slot, I post them here.

As I have mentioned, Optuntia basilaris was perfectly hardy for me in Ontario (-30 to -40C)

[Brian Ellis]

Amazing scenery Kristl, the Joshua Tree forest sounds intriguing.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Thanks for the report Kristl !! 
Brought back some great memories...